Dynamic brushstrokes, vivid colors, and gorgeous light and shadows weave a vibrant image upon a blue and white base. Chu Teh-Chun’s 2004 painting “Multitude en Devenir” (Multitude of Changes) is a rhythmic, lyrical symphony of bold and powerful colors. It exudes a lyric poetry full of movement and musicality, singing of a grand energy between the moving clouds and the flowing water. The painting manifests joy that is bright and full of positive energy.

As a renowned Chinese artist of the 20th century, Chu Teh-Chun opened up a vibrant chapter of art history with his unique lyric abstract paintings. In his youth in China, he established a solid background in Eastern culture. The years he spent studying in the Hangzhou School of Art (now the China Academy of Art) were turbulent, with the school moving constantly due to the War. Yet it was through his difficult education that he was able to see China’s magnificent mountains and rivers, cultivating the embrace of nature that would be seen in his future works. He lived in Taiwan for a few years in his late 30s, and then moved to Paris, France in 1955. There, he developed his mature style of lyric abstract art . He steadily found fame in Europe, followed by praise and followers in Asia, the Americas, and the rest of the world. Chu Teh-Chun found the liberating language of abstract art in the retrospective exhibition of Nicholas de Stael (1914-1955); learned the art of complementing light and shadow from the masterpieces of Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1602-1669); and captured the essence of structuring paintings with precision and dynamics from the work of Paul Cézanne (1839-1906). On the other hand, though he lived in faraway Europe, Chu Teh-Chun never stopped the self-cultivation of Chinese poetry and calligraphy. He always highly valued and studied Chinese ink wash paintings, especially the landscape paintings of the Tang and Song Dynasties. The artist took nourishment from both Eastern and Western culture. Through years of continual honing, he forged his own superb abstract language, finally emerging as a great artist.

Blending the best of both Eastern and Western culture into a mature, individual artistic system is not an easy task. Countless artists from Asia vowed to integrate Eastern and Western styles in the 20th century, but a mere handful have ever succeeded. Chu Teh-Chun once said that it wasn’t until after he turned 60 that his hands were truly able to express what was in his mind, and craft works that he was truly satisfied with. This is perhaps the artist’s modest self-deprecation, but it also shows his continuous internal journey toward bettering himself, over the decades of his artistic career. Chu Teh-Chun was already more than 80 when he painted “Multitude en Devenir”. He chose a dryer brush, which gave the overlapping colors a bright, lithe, chiming vitality. Rich layers of blue cover the top of the painting. The deep colors are reminiscent of the rich inks of southern Chinese landscape paintings, both distant and deep. The artist expertly blended the grandeur of Chinese ink wash landscapes into his work, displaying the magnificent grandeur of mountains among clouds within a medium-sized canvas. The blue and orange create sharp contrast; vivid colors converge, clash, and reflect one another, so that no matter how many colors adorn the canvas, the image never muddles. The colors are interconnected, yet each still shines through. Together, they compose a grand symphony that performs the artist's masterful use of color.

Chu had already passed his 80s when masterfully created this Multitude en Devenir with the experiences in his lifetime. In structure, it appears as if dashed off in a single masterstroke; yet its balance is perfect, and every corner delights. The strong brushstrokes, vivid colors, bright tone, and broad composition exhibits the artist's wisdom time and time again. The universe he has created is just like the name of the painting, Multitude en Devenir: constantly changing, encapsulating a myriad of scenes within a fleeting moment.